Chapter 7 - Elephants, Mermaids and Squirrels

Maggie and Caleb stared at the other boy in shock. Tom was all Elizabeth. If she'd had to choose the child Elizabeth would want, Maggie would have picked him. But this boy…

"Lord in heaven, child," Maggie murmured, "just look at you!"

This child was all David. He reminded her of her father, it was something about his eyes. He had a quality her pa had, that watchful, considering gaze. She turned to David, wondering how he'd convinced Elizabeth to bring this one home.

David answered her unspoken question. "Hannibal and I got to talking, and Beth and I figured, what's one more?"

He ruffled the boy's hair. They noticed that Hannibal was starting to look concerned about their reaction.

Maggie suddenly recalled herself. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" She reached forward and hugged him, "I'm just so surprised they found two perfect boys to bring home!"

Caleb shook the boy's hand and stared at him.

All of their families had grown up in the same town in Ohio and Caleb had known Joe Heyes all his life. His father, Francis Curry, and Joseph Heyes had been best friends from childhood, long before Caleb Curry and Maggie and David Heyes were even born. Like Maggie, Caleb could see the resemblance between Joe and this boy. He wondered if Elizabeth was aware of it. He thought it was unlikely.

They were all smiling, but Hannibal's smile was forced. He could see there was something here he didn't understand and it worried him.

David stepped forward and ruffled the boy's hair to let him know that everything was alright.

To Maggie and Caleb, he said "Come inside, we'll tell you all about it. Why don't you kids go and play get to know each other? Tom, Han, this is Adam, he's thirteen. Joseph here is twelve, like you, Tom. Leah is ten and Jedediah is six. Did I get that right?"

All the Curry children nodded.

Jed looked on miserably. Hannibal may have been closer to his age than the others, but he was tall and looked older, and the difference between six and eight (almost nine, he amended) seemed almost as great as the difference between six and twenty.

Adam, as the eldest and therefore the leader, spoke first. "We brought our catapults; we could go huntin' in the woods!"

Tom nodded enthusiastically. "Great!"

The four eldest children started to move away.

Hannibal hesitated, as Jedediah turned sadly towards the house. "You aren't comin'?"

The older children looked back. "The kid's too little and he's real clumsy. Go back to the house, kid. You'll just get in the way."

Jed expected Han to turn away at this and follow the others, but he stayed where he was.

"Get in the way of what? We're just playin', ain't we?"

Adam was annoyed that the new boy was questioning his judgement on this. "We're huntin'! He'll hurt himself or somethin'. You're better off stayin' here, kid."

Hannibal turned to Jed. "D'you want to stay here?"

Jed shook his head hopefully.

"Well, come on then." Hannibal turned to the others. "He can stay with me, I'll look after him."

Adam shrugged, annoyed. "Fine. It's your lookout, I guess. Let's go."

Maggie hung back to listen to the exchange. She watched, smiling, as Jed happily ran along beside his new friend and champion.

Maggie didn't hear Adam's voice as he walked away. "What kind of a name is Hanna-bel anyway? Sounds like a girl's name!"

Joseph laughed. "Yeah... Hannah-Belle!"

Tom laughed and Leah joined in.

Hannibal flushed angrily. "It's Hannibal. Hannibal was famous general who fought against the Romans."

"Well, I've never heard of him!" Adam turned to the others, "Have you?"

They all shook their heads and carried on walking.

Hannibal slowed a little, annoyed. He spoke to Jed beside him. "He was. He led a bunch of elephants over the Alps!" He saw the look on Jed's face. "They're mountains. Can you imagine, taking elephants over a mountain."

Jed's eyes widened at the thought. "No!" He thought for a moment. "I'd love to see an elephant."

Hannibal grinned. "I nearly did once!"

Jed turned to stare at him, disbelieving. "How?"

"There's this place in New York City, it's called 'Barnum's American Museum'. It costs twenty-five cents to get in, and you could spend a week in there and not see everythin'! Everything," he quickly corrected. That was going to be hard to remember! "I saw a mermaid!"

"A mermaid!"

"Yeah." He saw Jed's look of wonder and felt he had to be honest. "Didn't look like anythin'..anything, though. Wasn't like you see 'em in pictures, it was real tiny and all dried up. Some people said it wasn't real. I heard a coupla people say it looked like a monkey."

"What d'you think?"

"Well, it wasn't like any..thing I've ever seen. It looked real strange. It didn't look like any of the monkeys I ever saw."

"You've seen monkeys?"

"Yeah, they have street performers in New York that have monkeys with them. They can dance and do tricks."

Jed felt they'd wandered too far from their original point. "So, what about the elephant?"

"They threw me out 'fore I could see it. Guess they didn't believe I'd paid like everyone else. Didn't want someone lookin' like me in there."

Jed could tell that had really upset him. "You got to see some of it though! What else did you see?"

Jed listened in wonder as Hannibal started to tell him about the other things he'd seen.

Han and Jed saw the others stop and Joseph turned to shush them. "Quiet, kid. Adam's gonna get a squirrel, look."

They all watched as Adam lined up the shot, pulled back and let fly with the rock.

Adam didn't want to admit it, especially now that he had two new boys he had to impress, but he wasn't really a great shot. He rarely hit what he was aiming for, but he'd had a couple of lucky shots that made people think he was better than he was. To his amazement, that was what happened now.

Just as he loosed the shot, the squirrel moved directly into its path. He hit it squarely and drew a gasp of approval from the three older children. He looked behind him to see what the two younger members of the group thought. They said nothing, their faces unreadable.

The whole group watched as the squirrel lay breathing painfully, it's face a bloody mess.

Hannibal went to stand next to him. "Aren't you gonna finish it?"

Adam looked at him, horrified. He hadn't thought he'd have to actually… kill it. It had been different, just shooting at it. But actually killing it, with his hands... He couldn't do that.

It lay there, dying, obviously suffering.

"Nah, why bother? Didn't kill it for the meat or nothin'. I hate squirrel meat."

Hannibal looked at him in shock. "Then why d'you kill it?"

Joseph stood up for his brother. "Cause we're just foolin' around, havin' fun. That's why!"

There was a small sound and they all looked again at the squirrel.

Hannibal pursed his lips. "You can't leave it like that. It's in pain."

Tom sided with the others. "It's just a squirrel."

Leah nodded in agreement.

Hannibal looked at Jed. The younger boy had tears in his eyes as he looked at the injured animal.

Hannibal moved forward and gently broke the animal's neck. He stroked the soft fur for a moment, then turned around and started to walk away. "Come on, Kid. Let's go. This isn't my idea of havin' fun."

Jed looked at the dead animal a moment longer and then hurried after his new friend.